LONG BEACH, Calif. -
The Long Beach State women's volleyball team breezed to a 25-16, 25-15, 25-8 win over visiting UC Riverside on Saturday. The win is the third straight for the Beach, who improved to 11-9 overall and 4-3 in the Big West.

The Beach seemed to ride the high of Friday's emotional win into this one as they never trailed in the first and third sets. The Highlanders (1-17, 0-6 Big West) hit in the negatives for two of the three sets to post a -.054 hitting percentage for the match, compared to Long Beach State's .306 match hitting percentage. Chisom Okpala and Delainey Aigner-Swesey each were in on six total blocks as the Beach combined for 13 team blocks in the match.

The first set began with a with three straight UC Riverside attack errors and a Bre Mackie kill to put Long Beach State up 4-0. The Beach wouldn't look back as UC Riverside never came closer than three after Tyler Dorsey recorded the next point for the Highlanders.

The lead reached as much as 10 points on another Mackie kill the put the Beach up 18-8 in the set. Aigner-Swesey, Okpala and Alex Reid each tallied three kills during the set that featured multiple lengthy runs.

Okpala and Reid led the Beach with nine kills apiece while Aigner-Swesey finished with eight. Reid also tallied 10 digs while Aigner-Swesey had a match-high 13 digs.

In the second set, UC Riverside came out swinging and found themselves up 3-0 to start. A kill from Reid later on in the set knotted the Beach and Highlanders at 7-7 but the visitors went out on another run. The regained the lead on a kill from Tyler Dorsey and went on to score four of the next five points behind a couple kills from Bri Holmes and a kill from Lindsay Hornsby.

The Beach would not be turned away as it equaled the run and pulled even at 13-13 on a block from Mackie. After falling behind 14-13 when the next serve went into the net, the 49ers scored six straight points to go up 19-14 and ended up winning the set in convincing fashion, 25-15. The win swung all momentum to the Beach as the teams went into the locker rooms.

The third set was all Beach as the 49ers turned an early 5-3 lead into a 16-3 lead with Haleigh Hampton serving 11 straight points. Chelsea Cabrajac served seven consecutive points later in the set as the Beach cruised to the 25-8 clincher.

The Black & Blue Series comes to the Pyramid next week as the Beach faces just one opponent - UC Irvine on Saturday at 7 p.m. The 49ers will be going for their fourth consecutive win.